Posts Tagged ‘etching’

Icon

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Icon by Amy Crook

Icon, 1″x1″ etching on a 10″x4″ piece of watercolor paper

This is another tiny etching plate, which I inked using a method where the figure, who was etched deep enough to leave an impression in the paper, was inked in yellow, then the plate was wiped mostly clean and the rest of the surface was re-inked in red.

In classical art, yellow is the color of suffering, and of course in modern times we’re all about red for pain and blood. The diluted ink actually bled down the paper a little when it was run through the press, adding to the symbolism.

I actually did a whole series of crucifixion pieces during that time period, though this is definitely the smallest of the lot — the plate itself is only one inch square.

Icon, detail, by Amy Crook

Icon, detail, by Amy Crook

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
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Dichotomies

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Dichotomies by Amy Crook

Dichotomies, 4″x6″ etchings on watercolor paper

This print uses two small etching plates together in composition. The large plate was a piece of the same found plate from yesterday’s art, and the small plate is one of my series of smaller plates for use in larger pieces, which you can see was inked in two different colors and printed over the darker plate. I’m more pleased with the final result on this one, I think, but I like the contrast between the two pieces.

You can see how the natural deckle edge from a larger sheet of watercolor paper forms the bottom, where the hand-torn edges give character to the other three sides. I was always a bit careless about the process of breaking down the bigger sheets, so this, like many of my prints, isn’t really a perfect rectangle.

Because of the way the composition was created out of several different hand-inked and hand-placed plates, it’s one of a kind.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Untitled Print 1

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Untitled Print 1 by Amy Crook

Untitled Print 1, 4″x6″ etchings on watercolor paper

This print uses three small etching plates together in composition. The large plate was a bit of found art — a larger piece left behind by some other artists and cut up into intriguing shapes with no real connection to the original composition. The two smaller plates were part of a series of little, reusable etching plates I made by hand.

I have another print like this that I’ll post tomorrow, which uses a different portion of the found plate and another of the small plates in a similar manner.

Because of the way the composition was created out of several different hand-inked and hand-placed plates, it’s one of a kind.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Whorls and Turns

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns by Amy Crook, $499

For once, I thought I’d post something brightly colored for Friday. This is a great example of the way monoprint inks feel a lot like high-quality finger paints, and the playfulness that it gave to the process. Also an example of me not wearing gloves in the printing studio like I should have, but I won’t tell if you don’t.

When I really got into monoprinting, one of the things I did was make a number of small etching plates that I could use interchangeably along with the monoprints and special papers to create one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Here you can see three of those small plates, which were printed onto the page in a single run.

Whorls and Turns, detail, by Amy Crook

Whorls and Turns, detail, by Amy Crook

These small plates were about 1-1.5″ each, and could be inked a number of different ways to get different effects. You can see these three were all initially inked with a deep blue, and then the bottom one was wiped almost clean of blue and inked again with the red to give it the effect of blue veins in red rock. Once those plates had been run, the rest was done on a blank monoprinting plate, which would be printed right over the images that were already there. It’s interesting bit of approximation, since the image prints backwards onto the page.

This one-of-a-kind print is on thick watercolor paper suitable for framing, but not ready to hang by itself. I’m happy to matte or frame pieces before shipping for the cost of the materials.

Whorls and Turns, 12.5″x11″ etching and monoprint on watercolor paper, $499 with free shipping.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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Man Dressing

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Man Dressing 1, detail, by Amy Crook

Man Dressing 1, detail, by Amy Crook

Today’s art is an etching, which means there’s several prints, though I only have 1 of each edition below. All of my prints are hand-pulled the old-fashioned way using a printing press, whether they’re etchings or monoprints, and while I still have some of my old plates I doubt they’re in any shape to be printed from these days.

I’ve always been fascinated with our rigid ideas of gender, and the way that costumes that were considered the height of masculinity in their day (including the ruffles and corset in the image) are considered effete and downright kinky nowadays. This image was drawn with the help of a model, though we didn’t lace him fully into the corset, and uses a painstaking cross-hatched shading style that I vowed never to try again after this image. I’ve gone back to the technique now that I’m older and more patient, but it’s still one of my least-favorite methods due to the time and precision required.

Click below to see all three editions on their full pages. Don’t forget most images you can click on to see a bigger version, too.

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Categories: Daily Art, Nudes and Other Sexy Things, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
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Reaching Out

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Reaching Out by Amy Crook

Reaching Out by Amy Crook

I’ve always been a collector of odd bits and bobbles, and at one time I acquired a bunch of handmade postcards from India. They were lovely absorbent slightly off-sized pieces with wonderfully organic deckle edges, thick and irregular and strange. I took half a dozen into the printing studio with me and this one — the first I did — has always been my favorite of the bunch. So much so that I mailed it to my dad, who was kind enough to return it once it had completed its journey, since he had no suitable way to display it.

It’s currently tucked away in a frame and happily occupying a little niche in my apartment, where it reminds me of many good things every time I glimpse at it, including the fact that I talk to my dad a lot more now than I did back then.

Reaching Out, 4″x6″ etching and monoprint on handmade postcard, nfs.

Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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